Westerners like to joke about Asian meat (especially Chinese) and presume that they could basically serve you cat or dog meat instead of what you ordered. Of course people automatically make a face. How could anyone eat man’s best friend?
In Korea, dog meat is called “poshintang” and yes, people eat it. It literally means "invigorating soup".
Poshintang is especially popular among old men, who believe such meat will boost their virility. They particularly dig (ha!ha!) it when the dog has been hung – because it is apparently tastier, but more importantly, packed with hormones. See, if the dog struggles for his life, the meat will be filled with testosterone. And that’s just as good as Viagra!
On top of that, dog meat is renowned to cure people suffering from a cold, and to be a great source of energy.
My boss says he eats poshingtang 3-4 times a month; he goes out with his male friends, drinks shitloads of soju, eats the soup, and goes home to his wife feeling more virile than ever!
When his 10-year-old son was feeling weak, he brought home dog meat and his wife made a soup. My boss says his son was much stronger afterwards!
It is a custom to eat poshintang during Chobok, Jungbok, and Malbok. Those are the divisions of the heat peak in summer; Chobok marks the beginning, Jungbok marks the middle, and Malbok marks the end. Yesterday was Chobok – i.e. very hot days ahead…
Koreans believe that one should defeat heat with heat! Since the hot weather makes people weaker, one must eat food rich in energy. That’s when poshingtang comes in! Samgyetang (chicken soup – the chicken being young and stuffed with ginseng, garlic, jujube and sweet rice) is also quite popular to defeat heat.
Eating dog meat is a Korean tradition that probably emerged when the country was poor and such food was cheap. Koreans have a way of bragging about their food with catch phrases like “it’s very very good for your health”
Once labeled as such, poshingtang remained trendy Korean food. Plus, if you tell a man he’ll be able to sexually fulfill his wife’s fantasies… what do you expect!
However this became a problem during the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the government, fearing that the country would suffer from bad publicity, banned dog meat. That’s when poshingtang became Gaegogi, gaejangguk, and so on – Koreans were not ready to stop eating their source of vitality so they just gave it other names.
Koreans also enjoy gaesoju - a fermented drink that is distilled by cooking the dog in a double boiler. Dog’s penis used to be added as a medicine to supplement energy…mmmm?
There are said to be more than 6,000 restaurants across the country selling poshintang, or dog meat soup, getting through about 8,500 tons per year. Another 93,600 tons is used annually to produce kaesoju.
Of course it seems cruel to eat dog meat – they are so cute and we have come to consider them man’s best friend. Always jovial, dogs keep us company, come with us for a run or a walk, and they love to cuddle. We dress them in outfits; some even wear four little boots and a hat. Women carry them in their purse.
We feel like we understand them, and they understand us. People say dogs have feelings – therefore it would be cruel to kill them and eat them.
I agree. But what about other animals we massively raise and nastily kill for the sole purpose of food? Don’t they feel pain? Don’t we hear them scream as the butcher slits they throat open? Aren’t they suffering when they are skinned ALIVE?
Ever since I was a child I’ve been enjoying delicious steaks, fried chicken and exquisite pork cutlet. Meat tastes so good!
And now that I’ve lived in Korea for 2 years, I understand how difficult (though very possible) it would be for someone to be a vegetarian here; social activities revolve around eating – work dinner usually consist of samgyeopsal (fat pork) or galbi (BBQ beef), and huge amounts of soju.
Moreover, when someone more important than you (older, or higher in the social hierarchy) offers you something, it would be rude to refuse. So if your boss says you’re all going out for poshingtang, you can only nod and tag along - no matter if your wife is waiting with the kids or if you’re a vegetarian.
I guess it’s natural to some extent for humans to eat and even crave meat. I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
But the way we raise and kill them….!? It is simply repulsing! Disgusting. Cruel. Appalling. Atrocious. Fucking sick!
So I thought I’d share this video Doug made me watch in an effort to raise a little bit of awareness. Though it is absolutely shocking, I think every single human being (particularly meat eaters) should watch this.
I’m definitely not a vegetarian, but I certainly will eat as less meat as possible. After all, we can live very well without it. And that’s not mentioning trendy delicacies such as monkey brain, snake blood, and so on.
My boss took us out to lunch today and we had shabu shabu (a broth with salad, mushrooms, chives and of course beef/duck/pork meat) and all I could think of was the miserable pig hung from the ceiling, bleeding to death while still struggling for his life…
Enjoy.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1282796533661048967
** The Bible: Peter Singer's "animal liberation"
References: my friends, co-workers, wikipedia, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/422338.stm, http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/1370_per_capita_consumption_of_meat_and.html
